10 Oct
Written By Siobhan Bradfield
This year I visited the London Textile Fair in September 2023
What I learned from my visit at the London Textile fair last month:
**Networking:**
it can be an amazing opportunity to speak to people in the fashion industry and make contacts. Even if at this stage it won’t benefit you, you never know what can come from it down the way, work or collaboration on textile collections. Also a big plus is just chatting with people you don’t know – it definitely gave me practice going more out of my comfort zone.
**Trends:**
this was unexpected and made me very happy – finding the trend seminar held by BDA London. At the seminar, I learned about upcoming trends in fashion and in textile & prints for AW 24/25 for womenswear and menswear. It’s not just about trends but also learning what is happening in the fashion and textile & print industry so I can give my clients the best advice and pass on what I’ve learned.
**Research:**
researching what kind of studios show there, looking up the program and researching the names. Maybe there could be a collaboration in the future. Seeing what kind of fabrics are on the market, how are they displayed? Are there a lot of visitors? Although there are also a lot of opportunities to research this online, it was a good way for me to gain more knowledge of fabric, suppliers and trends.
Is it worth visiting? It really depends if you are close to London or not and if you are a brand or a freelancer. For brands I think it could be a great way to get into contact with different suppliers to source fabric and get more info on what kind of fabrics are on the market. If you are a small brand it might be good to see fabrics in real life and make yourself common with fabrics that might work for your collection. Many suppliers at the fair have a concentration fabrics without prints. For only prints, I would recommend visiting the London Design Fair, Paris Prints or Premiere Vision.
But Premiere Vision is quite a different story and a very special print fair that I wouldn’t miss going to. Find my experiences on one of my last blog posts here.
Are you a swim or activewear brand looking for a new print? Let’s talk about what kind of print could be suitable to make your brand more visible to new customers.
Write me an email to siobhan.bradfield@gmail.com to learn more about how we could work on your next textile design.
Essential Surface 